


Lurking

by limeta



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Albus Dumbledore Dies, Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, Bromance, Disappointment, Gen, Non-Consensual Touching, Sane Voldemort (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 20:28:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21185531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/limeta/pseuds/limeta
Summary: Harry Potter gets spelled immobile by Dumbledore. He is forced to watch Severus kill him. Except Voldemort is lurking beneath the stairs, waiting for some of his Death Eaters to rid him of Dumbledore finally. To pass the time he chats Harry up.





	Lurking

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [Cybrid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cybrid/pseuds/Cybrid) in the [October_Flash_Fest_Part_Two](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/October_Flash_Fest_Part_Two) collection. 

> **Prompt:**
> 
> Canon divergence at the end of sixth year. Rather than leaving his minions to do all the work, Voldemort leads the invasion through the Vanishing cabinet. When Harry and Dumbledore get back, it's Voldemort they face, not Draco Malfoy . . .

Seeing the Death Eaters in Hogwarts was a terrifying experience. These were men and women armed with dark knowledge that could and would inspire ungracious pain. They had fought in war and done unforgivable acts. 

To find them in a school setting was beyond discomforting.

Harry Potter was immovable, by spell only, because if it were not for the spell holding him in place he would have charged already to fight. 

Bellatrix Lestrange stood out, mad as they came. She laughed and jeered her comrades in arms on. Sparks flew out of her wand, each a more vivid currant colour. 

Dumbledore stood near the tower window, held at wandpoint by a child the same age as Harry, although goaded on by a figure only found in the deepest, darkest crevice of one's mind. 

Bellatrix purred sweetly, gesturing at Dumbledore and telling Draco to do it and fulfil his task.

When Harry stood below the stairs and watched Draco talking to Dumbledore he was ready to fight. He could feel the tension and anger burrowing deep in his shoulders. It weighed heavily on him. 

Snape came to Draco's side quickly enough, separating him from Bellatrix' influence. Harry would have gritted his teeth if the spell allowed him. 

They were talking. Harry strained to hear better, or to look at Dumbledore better, trying to catch a sign from him. Why had he been spelled immobile and useless? Harry willed himself to move, but :

"Dumbledore's magic is beyond a school boy's power." _ That voice _. Harry could not turn around, but he knew that voice like one knew fear's presence and tone. The inflection of those words sent a chill sauntering about Harry's mind. 

Cold hands gently caressed the back of his neck. He was still behind him. Underneath the stairs where Dumbledore spelled Harry with a body bind.

"Harry Potter," Lord Voldemort whispered, "I was looking for you."

That explained why he was not up there fighting against Dumbledore. He had been in search of Harry. He had to have been in contact with students… Harry didn't want to think about Voldemort's interrogation techniques. 

"Your friends have fled, or they haven't succeeded. It is a very hard thing to keep track of them all. Weaknesses, Harry. You only seem to accumulate them as the years go on."

Harry said nothing. But he thought: Piss off.

It earned him a small slap to the back of his head. Open palmed. It didn't hurt like Snape's did so it was mostly used as a warning. Voldemort hissed: "Careful with the cheek." His usually quiet tone was even more so. 

Harry still kept his eyes on Dumbledore. Draco's hand shook and the wand wavered.

"Do you think he can do it?" Voldemort mused. 

Harry had no idea and he pointedly thought: Can't speak, haven't you noticed?

Voldemort hummed at that, noncommittally. His hand moved from the neck upward into Harry's hair and began to ruffle it slowly, almost how someone didn't know what to do with their hands so they decided to pet the nearest dog. Not that Harry was a dog, mind. He was just going through a lot.

"I think I was wrong." Voldemort whispered and Harry wished he could see Lord fucking Voldemort admit being wrong. Sadly, all he could see was Albus Dumbledore talking down Draco.

Then Voldemort added: "You can't help but make comparisons when you know many generations of the same family. Abraxas was a force to be reckoned with. Ever loyal. Sadly the man died. Isn't that strange? You know someone all your life and then they die." His voice tinged with slight hysteria, betraying his fear of Death. "Though, he did die because he refused to get vaccinated against Dragon Pox. Honestly, the obstinate nature alone from that man was enough to overtake anyone's."

Snape shoved Draco.

"Draco Malfoy is nothing like my Abraxas."

A green curse shot from Snape's wand. 

Voldemort tightened his grip on Harry's hair.

Dumbledore fell from the tower.

Harry's body-bind wore off and he **screamed** with boundless grief. For a second, a very brief second, Harry forgot who was with him. He took his wand out and charged to go up the stairs and end Snape's life. Tears welled in his green eyes profusely. 

He made it only two steps up the stairs when Lord Voldemort caught his wand arm's wrist in a tight, unrelenting grasp. It felt like fiendfyre, burning him like holy water supposedly burned demons. 

"Drop the wand, Harry Potter." Voldemort whispered, "You have lost. We can negotiate."

Now Harry looked into those crimson eyes and when the ability to speak showed himself he said: "Never." Louder now. "You took EVERYTHING from me. I will NEVER stop fighting against _ you _." His voice cracked in the absolute worst moment his puberty had to have picked. Whether Voldemort noticed or not he did not show.

"How unfortunate. This generation is prone to absolute hysterics over the simplest of things." Draco being tasked to kill Dumbledore. Harry showing the appropriate signs of grief to seeing a grandfather-figure dead. "If you cannot even act in public accordingly I truly fail to see how we can speak. Sleep now." Magic travelled from Voldemort's grasp onto Harry. His eyes closed and he toppled forward to be caught by Voldemort.

"My lord?" Bellatrix leaned down from her floor to exclaim joyfully: "Albus is dead!"

"How wonderful." Voldemort said simply. Then added when he saw Bellatrix waiting for him to say something more: "I suppose I'll let you drink me under the table this evening, Bella."

She exclaimed in a very unladylike manner, but she has wanted to have a proper drink with him since 1970, so this was overdue.

Draco took notice of Harry's sleeping form in Voldemort's grasp and balked. He tried to stammer out an apology for his inadequate showing tonight, but Voldemort beat him to it: "Stop. Your generation has disappointed me completely tonight. I do not want to hear your excuses."

Bellatrix leaned on Voldemort and asked: "My lord, have you ever had chocolate liquor?" 

"No. I have not."

Bellatrix rubbed her hands together and schemed: "What about firewhisky?"

"Bella, I've told you I have not drunk before."

Bellatrix seemed even more elated. "I shall take good care of you!"

Voldemort smiled at his General. "I do not doubt that." Then, annoyed that nobody has offered: "Take the Boy Who Fell Unconscious off of me." Draco took him, no doubt to to atone for his behavior tonight.

"My lord…" 

Ah yes. Voldemort thought. _ This guy _. "Severus, exquisite job tonight. Someone had to stand up to the task if young Draco felt too childish to kill. I even waited until he was 16, fully knowledgable that sixteen year olds are capable of murder." He remembered how he had made his first horcrux at 16. "This generation… so saddening to see good minds like these warped by moral and society's ethical views."

"...the Order is coming." Severus continued. His dramatic pauses gave Voldemort a headache.

He took his wand out and said: "All right then. No survivors."

All nodded.

"Draco, go take Harry Potter to your home and keep him there." Then, a bit peeved still, "Do you think you could do that properly?"

"Y-yes, my lord."

Lord Voldemort smiled: "Fantastic, then."


End file.
